


Debt Repaid

by UzbekistanRules



Series: Shimadacest 2016 [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Forgiveness, Self-Hatred
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 22:27:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9145003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UzbekistanRules/pseuds/UzbekistanRules
Summary: Hanzo never expected Genji to be alive after ten years. Ten years he had built up his debt. Now, it's time to repay Genji. For everything.





	

Everyone from the Watchpoint had turned up to greet Hanzo when he decided to finally join Overwatch, curious about the new, mysterious member joining their ranks. There were sixteen of them in all, including-

“Genji,” Hanzo said stiffly. 

“Anija,” Genji replied, bowing his head.

So much had changed in the years they’d been apart. So much had changed between _them_ , it was nearly unbearable. Ten years ago, Hanzo thought he had killed the only family he had ever loved after their father died. Nine years ago, he went on the run. Nearly three months ago, he had been startled by an assassin who turned out to be his brother. It was only today that he had found it in himself to screw up his courage and swallow down his pride, allow himself to come here.

And he had made sure that everyone knew. This was to be witnessed by all.

Hanzo dropped to his knees, the seiza coming to him easily. It was the next step that would prove more difficult. He laid his bow before him, ignoring the strangled-sounding ‘ _brother_?’ that came from Genji. He would not be deterred from this. This was his mission.

It seemed to his ears everything stopped when he placed his hands before him and bowed, forehead touching the ground. 

“Ten years ago, this one cut your life short,” Hanzo murmured in the language of his home to the concrete before him. “It is only fair that you are allowed to dictate what this one shall do with its life.”

Nothing stirred. Hanzo was too far away from the others to hear what they were saying or doing, but Genji made absolutely no sound. Even the hum of his mechanical parts seemed to be running silently. But Hanzo had made his offer. A life for a life. It was the way that it would go. And if Genji wanted him to spill his guts, he would do so. 

After what he had done, it was only fair.

“No.” Hanzo’s head nearly shot up from where he was bowing, but he dared not move at that simple word. “Hanzo- Hanzo, please get up. I will not- why are you using those pronouns?”

He did as he was told to do, standing but leaving his bow before him. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Genji. It was too painful a thing to do. His mind whispered to him, dark terrible things that squatted in his head and would not leave him be. “This one is merely trying to convey respect.”

“It’s freaking me out. Hanzo please-” There was static in Genji’s voice, and Hanzo wasn’t sure what to do with the realization that he was the cause. “I don’t want your life. I don’t want your bow and for the ancestors’ sake I don’t want you to call me ‘ _kiden_!’ I don’t want to hear you calling yourself ‘ _sessha_!’ You are my brother. I want us to stand as equals.”

Hanzo looked up as Genji took one single step forward. “But-”

“Hanzo, I love you, but right now you’re being an ass.” Well. That was certainly straightforward of Genji- as per usual. “I don’t want anything but us to reconcile. I don’t want you to debase yourself. I just want you. Hanzo- Anija. Look at me.”

He was helpless but to obey. He saw Genji’s hands go up, behind his head. Heard the hiss of his vizor decompressing. Felt his heart drop as he saw those brown eyes amidst the scars. He did that- he and his dragons did that. Every part of Genji’s body, he had ruined. 

Hanzo ruined everything he loved.

“You did this.” Genji’s voice held no tone of accusation, so Hanzo made one up for him. “You did this, Shimada Hanzo, but I forgive you. I forgive every alteration and every scar. I forgive what you have done, brother. All I ask is that you forgive yourself. Ah-”

He didn’t even notice the tears until that small sound of surprise. Hanzo blinked, reached up to feel his face; startled to find it wet with tears. Genji was in front of him in an instant, wrapping his arms around Hanzo and pulling him close. Though he knew he should be thinking of how sorry he was, all Hanzo could think about was his bow. Genji would not step on it... right?

“Brother, I’m here. Please. Let me in.”

His mind blanked as he allowed himself to cry as he could not for ten years. Longer. Not since he was fourteen and he had killed his first man. His own arms came to cradle Genji and he buried his face in the crook of that almost-alien shoulder, breathing in the scent of CNT and oil and sandalwood. He felt fingers in his hair as he cried himself into exhaustion. He couldn’t handle anything anymore.

But this was nice. A shoulder to cry on was... nice. 

“Better, Anija?” Genji asked quietly, still holding Hanzo as the sobs died down.

“It can’t be helped.”

“Please don’t take this wrong, but- fuck that shit. This isn’t ancient Japan any more. We are not Shimada any more, for all we carry their name. ‘ _Shikata ga nai_ ’ doesn’t mean anything here. You’re free to express yourself, Hanzo.”

Hanzo was silent for a moment before pulling away and straightening himself out, trying to scrub the evidence of his breakdown away with nothing more than the sleeve of his gi. “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered, voice quiet and sullen. “Your companions will not accept me.”

“Only if you do not allow them. Stop being so stubborn, idiot brother.”

“ _Idiot?_ ” Hanzo sputtered, growing angry. “You’re the idiot, idiot!”

“I’m an idiot? Who was the one speaking in archaic phrases? ‘This one?’ _Seriously_? Idiot brother, could you be any more of an idiot?”

“I was trying to be polite!”

Genji’s resounding laugh was worth everything he had suffered through. 

Even after ten years, it still sounded the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaahhh this is a little weird, thanks to Japanese pronouns! Allow me to be as brief as I can-
> 
> While Japanese allows the pronouns to be inferred in nearly all of its sentences, Hanzo wanted to set the stage by deliberately using pronouns in his speech [[though obviously I didn't want to actually write the sentences out in google translate because 1. awkward as hell to translate properly and 2. awkward as hell to read]]. Therefore I tried to keep the context of the sentences roughly the same, while trying to make them seem super formal.
> 
> To that end, Hanzo would use stiff, archaic words and phrases. He used 'kiden' as the 'you' pronoun, which is a super archaic term one would use for male equals and superiors [though obviously he wanted the context to lean heavily toward the superior side]. 'Sessha' was his 'I' pronoun, another archaic term most closely translated as 'this humble, unworthy, clumsy fool.' I didn't think it would fit really well [although Genji knew EXACTLY what he was inferring] so I left it with the more stiff and awkward 'this one.' 
> 
> 'Shikata ga nai' is a formal way of saying 'it can't be helped.' It's similar in a lot of ways to 'shit happens' but the implications are more along the lines of 'stiff upper lip.' Keep everything inside, don't let the world affect you, stoic in the face of everything terrible happening in your life, even when it hurts so goddamn much you want to scream.
> 
> The informal would be 'shou ga nai' in case anyone was curious.


End file.
